I’ve read a few misconceptions here so for the avoidance of doubt…
Drink drinking/drug driving/failure to provide etc are all criminal convictions not traffic offences
As such they will be classed as unspent for 5 years. This means they will show up on all DBS checks and you must declare them for insurance/job applications etc.
After 5 years they become spent. This means for the vast majority of purposes they go away. You don’t have to declare them for your insurance etc
nor do you have to declare them for basic and standard DBS checks - they will come back clear
- this means for most jobs you can stop declaring it
- an enhanced check for certain industries and professions such as teaching, healthcare etc will still show your conviction, even though it’s spent
After 11 years they will become filtered. This means they essentially disappear. The only offences under the road traffic act that won’t are those in which you have caused “death or grievous bodily injury” - for most of us with DR10 or similar, our offences are eligible for filtering. This means that even as a teacher, nurse, doctor or solicitor etc you will not have to declare. Even an enhanced check will come back negative as your conviction has now been filtered.
Note the government changed the filtering rules in November 2020 following a supreme court ruling so that even if you have several convictions, providing they aren’t serious, they will be eligible for filtering.
So please remember that you absolutely don’t have you declare it “forever” and it most certainly does
not stick with you for life.
A final point - if you ever need a police certificate for an authority in a foreign country, eg applying for a visa, the police certificate will always show the conviction as other jurisdictions may have their own laws with convictions and dealing with foreign nationals. Your conviction can not be filtered for this purpose.
Spent/unspent/filtered (ie any offence at any time) will always show up for a Counter Terrorist Check (CTC)/Level 1B national security clearance check. This is the 3rd “tier” of security clearance and is generally reserved for the like of police, judicial appointments etc. Baseline clearance will show unspent but not filtered convictions.
I would advise anyone with concerns about your convictions and/or disclosure of them to have a look at
https://unlock.org.uk/